1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical fiber axial alignment method and related method for axially aligning one pair of or plural pairs of optical fibers with respect to one another, and an optical fiber fusion splicing method and related device wherein the one pair of or the plural pairs of opposing optical fibers, that are axially aligned, are mutually fusion spliced.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of a related art optical fiber axial alignment and fusion splicing device 101 (hereinafter referred to as “a first related art”). The optical fiber axial alignment and fusion splicing device 101 is comprised of butt alignment sections 109 having butt alignment V-shaped groove portions 107, respectively, that during positioning of a pair of tape core wires, the tape core wires 105 are caused to butt each other from right and left of the optical fiber axial alignment and fusion splicing device 101, and a pair of optical fiber holder sections 111 (optical fiber holders) that clamp the pair of tape core wires 105, respectively. Also, although each V-shaped groove portion 107 may be suffice to have at least one groove 107a, since the example of FIG. 1 shows a case where use is made for tape type optical fiber core wires 105 each composed of a plurality of optical fibers 103, butt alignment groove portions 107 are shown as having a plurality of grooves 107a, respectively.
When placing the respective optical fibers 103, that form component elements of the pair of tape core wires 105, on the respective grooves 107a of the respective V-shaped groove portions 107, optical fiber holder sections 111, that clamp the respective optical fibers 103 or the tape core wires 105, are manually shifted, thereby causing the optical fibers 105 to be positioned on the associated V-shaped groove portions 107. When using the optical fiber holder sections 111, a worker uses his one hand to move the optical fiber holder section 111 so as to allow all of the optical fibers 103 to be received in the associated grooves 107a of the V-shaped groove section 107 and, if the respective optical fibers 103 are received in the respective grooves 107a, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the worker uses the other hand to operate a clamp lever 113 from a condition shown in a dotted line to a condition shown in a solid line, thereby clamping the tape core wire 105 with the optical fiber holder section 111.
A bottom wall 111a of the optical fiber holder section 111 has a substantially reversed concave shape. Meanwhile, a holder section pedestal 115, on which the optical fiber holder section 111 is rested, has its upper surface formed with a convex portion 115a. A slight degree of gap exists between the convex portion 115a and the bottom wall 111a and moving the optical fiber holder section 111 enables the optical fibers 103 to be precisely positioned in the grooves 107a of the V-shaped groove portion 103.
Further, another related art optical fiber axial alignment and fusion splicing device (hereinafter referred to as “a second related art”) has the same V-shaped grooves as those of the first related art set forth above and has the same number of slits, as those of the V-shaped grooves, that protrude above the V-shaped grooves and are fixed rearward of the V-shaped grooves, with the slits and the V-shaped grooves being aligned on the same straight lines. Accordingly, inserting the optical fibers through the slits allows the respective optical fibers to be guided through the slits to fall in parallel to one another and, thus, the optical fibers are easily received in the V-shaped grooves, respectively.
However, with the first related art optical fiber axial alignment and fusion splicing device 101, a distance between the adjacent V-shaped grooves 107 is extremely small to be 0.3 mm and, also, a width of the V-shaped groove 107 per se is extremely narrow to be 0.1 mm. Under such conditions, since the worker needs to carry out positioning between the V-shaped grooves 107 and the optical fibers 103 through hand work, resulting in troublesome issues.
Furthermore, when clamping the optical fibers 103 with the optical fiber holder sections 111, the existence of the gap between the holder section 111 and the pedestal 115 results in movement of the optical fiber holder section 111 to cause the optical fibers 103 to be liable to be deviated from the given grooves 107a, resulting in an issue of raising difference in work speeds.
Also, with the second related art optical fiber axial alignment and fusion splicing device, due to the need for the optical fibers to be manually positioned when inserting the optical fibers through the slits, a troublesome issue is encountered. Moreover, since the slits are fixed in position, when inserting the optical fibers or removing the optical fibers, if the optical fibers are not moved in a parallel direction, it is highly probable for the optical fibers to be damaged or broken away. For this reason, the worker is required to carry out the work with an extremely high attention and a poor efficiency results in, with a resultant issue arising in a need for worker's skills.
The present invention has been completed with a view to addressing the above issues and has an object to provide an optical fiber axial alignment method and related device wherein one pair of or plural pairs of opposing optical fibers are automatically received in butt alignment grooves of the butt alignment section and axially aligned with respect to one another, and an optical fiber fusion splicing method and related device wherein the optical fibers, that are axially aligned, are mutually fusion spliced.